Ulang, N M; Gibb, A G F and Anumba, C J (2009) Communication of health and safety information in construction. In: Dainty, A R J (ed.) Proceedings of 25th Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2009, Nottingham, UK.
Abstract
Occupational health and safety is important to the design, construction, maintenance, refurbishment and demolition of buildings and facilities in all branches of industry, business and commerce. Health and safety issues have been a major consideration in construction. Far too many people get hurt, injured or die even though the situation has improved over recent years. Accident and fatality rates continue to be significantly higher than other industry sectors. Although all parties involved in the construction industry may address their respective responsibilities, the lack of integration between each organisation often results in communication problems which jeopardise health and safety. Of particular note is the communication during the design phase. All information pertaining to the project must be readily accessible for all parties, to ensure smooth and hitch-free project execution. This paper reviews the challenges in the communication of health and safety information in the design phase of construction projects. It characterises the various aspects of collaborative communications at this stage and highlights the problem area. It also presents the preliminary findings of interviews with members of the design team as part of the first author s PhD studies.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | communication; design; health and safety; inter-organisational relationships |
| Index terms: | occupational health and safety, design team, health and safety, industry sector, interview, construction industry, design phase, health and safety issues, commerce, integration, construction project |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, professional practice, production management, health safety and environment, industry analysis, asset management, organizational analysis, occupational health and safety management |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Organizational Design, Project Management, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here